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MSM, University Blaming Russia for Anti-GMO Sentiment

The American mainstream corporate media has turned into a literal madhouse in the period of the last two years.

Any doubt whether or not mainstream outlets are actually propaganda outlets should have been erased around the time of the 2016 elections. Now, however, it appears that outlets are trying to see just how ridiculous their propaganda can be before the majority of people abandon them altogether.

Taking the recent Russian hysteria as an example, mainstream outlets have blamed Russia for almost everything from the election of Donald Trump, “fake news,” “conspiracy theories”(which are actually mislabeled as conspiracy theories), protest movements and questions surrounding the flu vaccine

You would think the mainstream media would have discredited itself beyond repair at this point. At least you would think so after the most recent hilarious attempt to blame “Russian wins” for cold weather in the UK.

But in terms of ridiculous ideas and nonsensical claims, mainstream media has a competitor – the Western University. Unfortunately for the American people, however, these two institutions do not actually compete, instead they work together, hand in glove.

An example of this can be seen in the new Russian plot unearthed by professors at Iowa State University and reported by The Des Moines Register, blaming Russia for anti-GMO media pieces. The research claims that Russia is funding various media pieces that “question the safety of GMOs in an effort to hurt U.S. agriculture interests and bolster its position as the ‘ecologically clean alternative’ to genetically modified food.”

ISU Assistant Sociology Professor, Shawn Dorius, stated that a successful Russian plot to turn the U.S. against GMOs “would have a clear negative effect on an industry in the U.S. and could advantage Russia.”

Of course, it could also vastly improve the lives of farmers and American agriculture in the United States and advantage the entire world, but never mind that, according to the researchers. Because if you’re questioning GMOs, you’re falling prey to an insidious Russian plot to destroy our way of life.

GM Watch, with a heavy dose of sarcasm, responds to the propaganda piece by stating,

We owe a debt of gratitude to Dorius and his co-author, Carolyn Lawrence-Dill, an associate professor in ISU’s department of genetics, development and cell biology, for showing that much of the negative press about GM foods emanates from Russia, which is, as the Des Moines Register darkly reminds us, a “former communist country”.

Of course, the Russkies might point out that ISU has a history of accepting agribusiness funding and even has representatives of GMO giants Monsanto and Pioneer on its boards.

But it’s a relief to know that the articles dissing GM crops have nothing to do with issues like the agricultural meltdown caused by dicamba herbicide drifting off of fields of GM dicamba-tolerant soybeans and damaging millions of acres of neighbouring crops.

Neither is it anything to do with the collapse of the two main GM traits – herbicide tolerance and Bt insecticidal toxins – in the face of resistant weeds and pests.

Nor, we’re glad to find, are the articles in any way related to the GMO industry’s reckless dumping of its unwanted, poorly tested, and pesticide-soaked products into world food supplies. Add “unlabelled” in the case of the US, where industry has spent millions of dollars fighting labelling that would allow citizens to know which foods are GM.

Neither are they related to the industry and regulatory failure to take seriously the findings of harm in laboratory and farm animals fed GM crops in tests. Or to the attempts by the GMO industry and its allies to smear the reputations of scientists whose work uncovers harms and risks linked to GM foods and their associated pesticides.

Thanks to the ISU profs and the Des Moines Register, we now know that these doubt-promoting articles are nothing more than fabrications motivated by the nefarious self-interest of the US’s old cold war enemy, which has an evil plan to line its own pockets through the sale of “ecologically clean” alternatives to GMOs, while in the process stirring up “division” among the American people.

Sustainable Pulse points out that this new “research” comes around the same time that Russia’s anti-trust regulator is reviewing the Monsanto-Bayer merger. The review is reportedly not going well for the companies. The Federal Anti-monopoly Service is not likely to allow the merger to go ahead in the same way that Bayer and Monsanto have demanded.